by Carolee Sherwood
Hello, Thursday, it’s me, Carolee. I brought a few friends. They brought a few poems! (You brought poems, right?)
Whether your wrote about what you believe or what you don’t believe — and even if you wrote about whatever the heck you wanted to write about! — post your links or your poems in the comments section of this post. Once you’ve done that, skip around and visit your fellow poets.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for another prompt. 
Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.
Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.
If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.
Carolee Sherwood is a poet and artist who lives in Upstate New York. She is co-editor of Ouroboros Review, mother of three boys and a veteran Read Write Poem columnist. You can find her rambling about the creative life at Carolee Sherwood and drafting poems at I Am Maureen.
My poem this week is titled: “CREDO“
‘I Believe’ sung by Frankie Laine.
If this is one of your favourite songs…
best not read this!
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
rallentanda replied:
February 27th, 2010 at 4:46 am
For those who likes a wordle challenge,there is
a competition on my blog this week. Avago!
I have a thing called Bismillah
You’ll find mine here:
http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/freedom
Great prompt Carolee!
seeds of passion
Here is my offering:
used envelope
Having only recently posted an ‘unbelief’ poem to RWP, a second declaration of ‘unfaith’ might have me coming across like some sort of street-corner pagan zealot. Not the case: the proximity of poems is pure coincidence.
So if you want to check out a bundle of poems on subjects as diverse as central heating, first love, insomnia and garden sheds as well as this little rant-ette on the joys of going it alone in the universe, click on my name above.
I firmly believe we are not alone, but I do not believe we are in danger: Moonfall
This was a neat prompt! I wrote
Belief
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2010/02/another-mother-poem-for-read-write-prompt-115-belief.html
I believe I may be depressed
adam-kind makes god from questions
This one flew off in unexpected directions: A Creed for Vultures.
call it small beliefs
I really enjoyed this soul searching exercise! Just the lists themselves kept me going for hours..you can find my poem – “Branches” here:
http://cynthiashort.blogspot.com
This list making (soul searching) exercise was really great! You can find my poem, “Branches” here: http://cynthiashort.blogspot.com
well, I wrote two but linked one — this was a tough one for me. that whole self-examination thing.
http://another2doors.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/accept-as-true/
hi, guys! can’t wait to read!!!!
A Child who believed in everything
I believe that I have finally become an adult. It was not easy, putting away my childhood beliefs and entering the doubt zone of (almost)
maturity. Where once, everything was as it seemed, now I see nothing but questions. If today, I choose to believe something, by tomorrow it may have changed. New beliefs spring up all around. Nothing is certain, nothing is sure. Even yesterday means different things to different people. Once a song writer believed in yesterday. I try to cling to that thought. it is difficult to believe in today.
Tomorrow is an open mouth, daring one to come closer, step inside.
I try to picture a map of the universe with an
arrow pointing to some likely spot and a sign reading “You are here.” Can I believe in “here?” And if I did, how long would it remain? I am a child no longer.
barbara_y replied:
February 25th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I like that the arrow is pointing to “some likely spot”.
I strongly believe in making love, strongly!
Love Sanctified…
http://ofheart.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/love-sanctified/
I believe in neurodiversity. I also believe that we all have a right to be different.
You Don’t See It
My schedule has eased up, so I’m back this week on GYPO. I can’t wait to read all your great belief poems!
Here’s my poem “Emporium” –
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com
I was off prompt this week, but I brought some: Caribou Shadows
Powerful prompt. Surprised me. Which is always a good thing.
Universal Tags
I guess I’m not the only one who named my poem “Credo”. I didn’t follow the prompt exactly, went a bit silly.
http://poemblaze.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/looking-for-a-couple-tablets-to-engrave/
This is a poem that is about how I am at odds with what I believe, how it is perhaps a vigilant watch to be cleansing my beliefs every day. I hope someone likes it:
http://jimmcneely.blogspot.com/2010/02/prejudice.html
Here is mine…BELIEVING NOT KNOWING
http://waynepitchko.blogspot.com
Cynthia Short – I loved this phrase in your branches poem:
===============
I’ve mastered ways
to navigate
within these bonds
and carve
small freedoms
within my cage.
===============
The idea of carving freedoms within my cage, and so frankly acknowledging that I am in a cage, seems quite powerful. Nicely done!
Sonnet.
Here is mine. Thanks for the prompt!
Silent Water for RWP #115
jmcneely replied:
February 25th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I like how you couched the notion of belief in terms of a picture of a sort of rocky ocean edge. It reminded me of Kierkegaard’s idea that we reason our way to the edge of our understanding and occupy ourselves there. I think you might think about polishing up the beggar’s dream part to stay with the seaside metaphor, but that is just me. I liked it a lot.
http://motherveg.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/love-is-a-dog-only-we-have-it-backward-and-its-a-bitch/
Here is mine:
“Vocabulary Lesson”
http://djvorreyer.wordpress.com
Mine is Happily Ever After: http://melaniesmasalamusings.blogspot.com/2010/02/happily-ever-after.html
My poem this week is titled “Cradled.”
http://yourinnerceo.blogspot.com
Therese Broderick replied:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
I can’t sign into your blog, so here’s my comment: An effective short poem with clear images and direct statements. I like how you frame the issues of belief within the features of Nature’s landscape/sky. Will you believe what others tell you? Will you let yourself believe what you naturally want to? The images of the crescent and the suspension and the cradle work well together. Very nice!
I was a little surprised to find that my list of things I don’t believe in came so much easier than my list of things I do believe in. I wonder what that means?
Bedrock
I am early posting mine and I really enjoyed this prompt. Thanks Carolee!
http://flaubert-poetrywithme.blogspot.com/2010/02/reasons.html
What I mean is early for me! lol!
Here is mine: http://www.spiritsoflena.com/2010/02/read-write-poem.html
Woo! I finished. Time to celebrate!
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-i-believe-and-proof-that-backs-it.html
I didn’t think I was going to have anything, but this is what I ended up with.
http://survivorscribe.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/day-33-thursday-morning/
Did someone say list? I love list poems. So Carolee, what other provocative words do you have up your sleeves?
A promise kept
The prompt kept sending me back to work on an older poem, so I ran with it. You can see it here:
http://pasaery.wordpress.com/
I chose a different path this week: http://deowriter.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/fraught-insomnia-and-anger/
Am also hosting Poetry Friday here: http://tinyurl. com/y92m6v6
Here are my beliefs about art and creativity:
http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com/2010/02/blissful-seat.html
Neil Reid replied:
February 28th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Beautiful poem. (Sorry, your blog don’t like me. Can’t comment.)
Very nice job!
Marianv,
A simply lovely poem. I love the part that reads:
“You are here” Can I believe in “here?” Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing.
Pamela
I really enjoyed this prompt, although my poem came out a little strange.
http://rhiannonproblematising.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/poem-beliefs/
I loved this prompt. It took me to all sorts of interesting places, but it took quite a while for me to get a poem from it. Actually, I will be publishing several small poems in response to the prompt. Here’s my first:
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is.html
Well, since you asked– my most recent poem is a prose poem in the Spring 2010 issue of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, ‘Abd Al Muqeet/
Deb Scott replied:
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:56 am
Welcome to RWP, Geoffrey. We usually link to one new (or newish) unpublished poem, or leave it in the comments. But congratulations on your publication news.
You’re welcome to poke around and see what RWP is about.
My poem this week was Biological Soul.
HOw about suspending belief.. my offering..
http://estherpoyer.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/when-marthe-came-poem/